


Blackouts

by MoonlightShines (Thatkillervibe)



Category: Stargirl (TV 2020)
Genre: Canon Compliant, Chemistry, F/M, Fluff, Friendship/Love, Post 1x06, Pre-Relationship, Protective Rick
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-31
Updated: 2020-08-03
Packaged: 2021-03-06 00:40:00
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,116
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25634437
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Thatkillervibe/pseuds/MoonlightShines
Summary: Rick and Beth partner up for lab experiments in chemistry class.
Relationships: Beth Chapel & Pat Dugan, Beth Chapel & Rick Tyler, Beth Chapel/Rick Tyler, Pat Dugan & Rick Tyler
Comments: 31
Kudos: 58





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * For [gertstarlight](https://archiveofourown.org/users/gertstarlight/gifts).



> for @gertstarlight for coming up with the idea with me!

Beth looked down at the print out instructions of the lab, double-checking that her station had all the instruments that she’d need as she tied her apron on.

“Hey.” She turned to find Rick with his backpack slung over his shoulder. He dumped it onto the surface. “I can help you with that.” 

His hands were on her skin suddenly. Beth nearly jumped. The hairs stood at the back of her neck as he finished tying the apron for her. He stepped aside when he was done and flashed her one of his half-smiles. 

Somehow along the way of becoming team members for JSA, without any verbal agreement about the matter, Rick stood in as her permanent team partner for school assignments. It was as surprising as it was welcome, Beth had been accustomed to doing everything alone. Or even, everything separately next to Rick, but alone. Now they did everything _together._

“Hi,” she said as he threw on clear goggles of his own. “The experiment we’re supposed to complete is to prove Charles’s Law—” 

“Which states that the volume of gases equals a constant value, the pressure, multiplied by its temperature as measures by Kelvin,” he droned on after a second of a glance at the page. 

“Um,” she said after an awkward pause. “Wow. You really have been studying those chemistry textbooks.”

“Yeah,” he said, sounding a bit embarrassed about it. Beth wasn’t sure why. It was impressive. She had a perfect GPA, but she had to work hard at it. With that kind of memory, Beth wondered what else Rick could easily do. Rick shifted on his feet as if he could sense her scrutiny and it was making him uncomfortable. “Hey, Beth, listen. We don’t even need to do the experiment, I know all the answers to the questions for the lab report.”

He slid the worksheet from her side over the table, borrowing her pencil to answer the questions. Her eyes widened as she watched him speed through it all without even needing a calculator to transfer the Celsius to Kelvin. 

A minute later he dropped the pencil. “Done.”

Beth gaped. “Did you just—?”

The tips of his ears went red. “Yeah. Whatever. It’s not a big deal.”

“Then what are we going to do for the next fifty minutes?” Kids were still trickling into the lab. The bell hasn’t even rung yet for the class to officially start. 

Rick looked around, making sure they weren’t being overheard then leaned into Beth’s space. “Do you remember the badminton birdie that Sportsmaster threw at us?”

“You mean the smoke grenade he threw at us?” 

He nodded. 

“What about it?”

Rick pulled three vials from the pocket of his hoodie and flashed them to her. “You’re the most vulnerable member of the JSA so if we want to keep you safe while you run away, we’re gonna need to make you some of your own.”

Beth’s voice went _shrill._ “You want to make a _bomb?”_

He shushed her, putting his hand over her mouth to stop her from catching anyone’s attention. “Not with that volume!” 

He pulled his hand away super quickly, blushing and wiping it against the side of his jeans.

_“Rick,”_ she hissed in dawning horror as she watched him pour dangerous-looking substances into a beaker. Beth tugged on his sleeve, looking back anxiously at their chemistry teacher, explaining Charles Law at the front of the room, oblivious. “Rick. _Rick!”_

But he wasn’t listening, focusing on whatever poison he was about to concoct as something started to bubble up in the beaker into a black foam. “Rick! This isn’t safe! Do you know what you’re even doing!?” 

_“Relax._ I got this.” 

“We could get kicked out of class,” she told him. “We could get _suspended_. We could _catch the room on fire._ We could get _expelled_ , Rick.” 

He bit his lip like he was trying to hide his amusement at her nervous ramblings, but he did pause to look at her. “You honestly think Mr. Hyacinth is paying attention to us right now?” He nodded to their teacher, who was busy engaging in some heated discussion with another student at the desk far away.

“….No,” she admitted begrudgingly. “But I don’t think this is a good idea! If we get caught—” 

Rick rolled his eyes. “We’re not going to get caught.” 

“You don’t know that!” 

“Do you want to be protected when we’re out on a mission or not?” 

She chewed on her bottom lip and stayed silent. He knew she knew that was rhetorical. Of course, she did. 

“Look,” he said, nudging her side and lowered his voice again. “I was thinking since you’re Dr. Mid-Nite, we could make you some type of ball that you can throw that will make everything go dark if you’re ever cornered by ISA or alone. And then, since Chuck can give you night vision, only you’d be able to run through that.” 

“…That’s pretty clever,” she allowed, not wanting to let him know it was actually genius. Or at least, it would be if they didn’t have to try to experiment that during fourth-period Chemistry. “How are you doing that?”

Because she very much needed to know if he actually had any clue what he was doing or if he swiped any and every flask from under their teacher’s nose that looked potent. There were lab safety rules for a reason. They could accidentally create a lethal gas or worse, Rick could burn his hands off with acid. He wasn’t wearing any gloves. Beth liked Rick’s hands! He needed his hands to be Hourman! 

“Potassium nitrate,” he said, then asked her to pass the sugar from his bag. 

Beth heaved out a heavy sigh, then unzipped his bag to find a few packets of sugar she knew came from the school cafeteria as well as a firework fuse that she didn’t even want to think how he got his hands on. She passed them to him reluctantly, and sighed again, making her disapproval obviously known. 

“Thank you, Beth,” he singsonged in a smug tone that made it clear he knew exactly what she thought of this, and furthermore, knew she’d help him anyway. Beth scowled because it wasn’t fair. 

She watched as he poured ingredients into the mixture like they were baking a very dangerous cake, passing along different chemicals and utensils for the lab that he claimed he needed. 

Beth covered her mouth and held her breath when he lit up the bunsen burner flame to heat up what he was doing. Inside of the beaker now looked like molten lava, solidifying under the flame until it turned into a sickening brown molasses colour. 

It didn’t look _normal._ This was how they were going to die. This was how they were going to go to _jail._

“I feel like we should ask Chuck for help.” 

“I don’t think so. It’ll be a bigger distractor. Besides, I told you I got this. I looked it up this morning.” 

Beth didn’t know what to do with that information. Had Rick really woken up today deciding he was going to make _bombs_ for her? And why did the thought give her butterflies? That shouldn’t be so sweet! 

“Rick…” she wanted to ask why he cared so much. Even if it sounded stupid. They were friends. Great friends now. And they were members of the same crime-fighting team. Of course, he’d want to make sure she’s safe. Kids have died because of the ISA and she was at risk for not being good at fighting back against people. It’s just that something told her this wouldn’t be happening if she had partnered up with Yolanda or Courtney. 

And not just because they wouldn’t do something so recklessly stupid (because honestly maybe they wouldn’t do this but they all had their moments) or couldn’t come up with the same ideas. No, because Rick really cared about her, she realized. Like really, really. He went so far as to think up how these blackout bombs would be on theme for her name. Who has ever went out of their way to think about Beth like that? No one. 

She tried to study his face through the blurry smudged safety goggles, but the barrier made it hard to see his eyes. He was fiddling with the firework fuse, attaching it to the clump of mass. She put her hand back on his hoodie sleeve and tugged a bit. He turned as if her tug could do that. Make him stop and listen. Which was crazy, because Rick was big and honestly, she couldn’t stop him, not as Rick or as Hourman, so why did a gentle tug steer him toward her so easily? He looked at her with his undivided attention, waiting for what she had to say. 

Her mouth went inexplicably dry. Taking a breath, she started again. “Rick…” 

The beaker exploded. 

Beth screamed, startling into his side so bad she thought she had a heart attack. Rick held her against him, shielding her from the glass and smoke. Beth’s face was smushed against his black, old borrowed lab apron, his hand protectively against her back. Her heart jumped again, though this time it wasn’t because of the noise. It took a moment for her to realize she wasn’t the one shaking. She looked up to find his entire frame convulsing and her jaw went slack at the sight. 

Rick was laughing. 

Like, genuinely _laughing_. Beth found herself grinning, eyes growing bright at the scene. She’d never seen Rick laugh. A chuckle or a smirk here and there, yes, but he couldn’t even catch his breath now, he had tears in his eyes and he was holding his side and his face was now pressed against the tabletop to hide from the class staring at them because Rick Harris was _laughing._

At the nosey eyes, Beth took a step back, waving her hands to shoo away their classmates. She craned her neck to find that their teacher wasn’t even in the room. She let out a sigh of relief.

“Nothing to see here!” she said, using her go-to spiel whenever one of them did something weird. “That was totally an accident. Our bad!”

She kept shooing until they grew bored, then turned back to assess the mess they made. 

_“Oh my god,_ Rick!” she smacked at his shoulder as she tumbled into her own fit of giggles because his laugh was infectious and happy and the best thing Beth has ever heard in her life. “I told you!” 

But he couldn’t care less about their dangerous chemical exploits, and— She glanced back at the dark residue along the rim of the beaker—She realized she didn’t either. They may need to make some fine-tune adjustments, and maybe look at what they were doing when holding firework fuses in school, but it _worked._

Rick pulled the safety goggles up into his hair and went to find the paper towels and broom to sweep up the glass. When he returned, he stopped and narrowed his eyes at her suspiciously. “What is it?” 

Beth took the broom, carefully guiding the broken glass into the bio-waste bin next to the sink. “Nothing,” she lied badly. 

“Beth…” 

She glanced at him with her pleased grin. “You’re smiling.” 

Rick’s hand dropped against the sink. “Oh.” 

He avoided her eyes, ears reddening again like they did when she was marvelling over his ease with the worksheet. She grabbed his hand and he sucked in a breath, chancing a look. 

“You’re smiling,” she repeated. “I love your laugh!” 

“Oh my god,” he mumbled under his breath, turning away. Beth tightened her hold. 

“You’re happy!” she squeezed his closed fist. His hand loosened in surrender, going flat against the table. Beth turned it over and slipped her hand in his, linking their fingers together. To her utter delight, Rick turned a whole other shade of pink. 

Rick moved their hands so they weren’t on full display over the table, but he squeezed back, and that was all Beth needed to know.


	2. Chapter 2

“You two made a _bomb?”_

Beth sat with Rick on the wooden bench of disciplinary torture. It was stiff and uncomfortable—worse, it smelt like sweat and fear. She had to squash down an anxiously clawing urge to tap her foot against the floor like Rick, a habit that used to annoy her. A habit she doesn’t even have. 

Beth has never been in trouble at school. _Ever._

Not one detention or demerit point or strict scolding by any teacher or playground monitor since Kindergarten. Beth never had to sit on this bench. Never been in the principal’s office for any other reason than collecting a plaque or certificate of achievement. Never felt this slimy guilt-ball of _awful._ It’s only been forty-five minutes, but sitting here in shame as their peers passed by through the big window of the office in front of Principal Bowin and Pat and the nice secretaries that worked here and _God_ was punishment enough. She felt like a terrible human being. A liar. A cheater. A _scoundrel._

Principal Bowin crossed her arms in her matching dark green skirt and jacket suit, far too displeased for a woman who spends her weekends hypnotizing innocent people to death with her husband’s fiddle. 

“Not to _harm_ anyone! This is bullshit!” 

Beth held her tongue, but she had to give it to Rick. This _sucked._

Why did Mr. Hyacinth have to correct his prescription glasses? He never bothered to notice their experiments in Chemistry class before! And Rick couldn’t get in his bad graces, he needed to do well in chemistry to figure out more of his father’s equations and codes. He was doing well in the course, Beth thinks he might have a shot at the regional science competition that she's pushing him to enter. A win there would look _amazing_ on college applications and Rick was super good at it! He couldn’t afford another black mark on his student record, not _now._

“I’m sure you know this act of delinquency is a serious offence,” Principal Bowin continued. “Explosives are weapons and they—” 

“—A stink bomb is hardly an explosive—”

“—In fact, I ought to bring in the county sheriff—”

“Pat!” Rick cried. “She’s blowing things all out of proportion—” 

“Bad word choice, Rick,” Beth muttered under her breath. He groaned and tried to think of something else to say, but under Principal Bowin and Mr. Dugan’s judgmental glares, he thought better of it and slumped back against his seat. Beth stared down at her shoes. She could never bring her parents to another parent-teacher assembly ever again. They were going to be so disappointed. 

“How could it be a stink bomb? There was no foul smell in the report sent by their teacher.”  
  


“Because we never set it off!” Rick snapped, lying to save their butts, and rather convincingly too. “We weren’t trying to hurt anyone.” _Which was true._ “We finished the assignment early and we got bored. I mean, this was just a prank that I made Beth help me with—” 

Beth glanced up at the two adults, knowing if Rick continued the way he was, he’d only screw himself over. 

“Mr. Dugan, this was all my fault. Rick had nothing to do with it!” 

“Save your breath, Beth.”

He turned to The Fiddler. “May I have a word with these two? Alone?”

She let out a huff. “You have five minutes. When I return, we _will_ discuss repercussions.” 

The door shut firmly behind her, and they all waited for the click-clacks of her high heel shoes down the hallway before they all started talking at once. 

Pat put his hands on his knees to stare at them at eye level. A truly incredible guilt-tripping tactic. 

“— _Bombs_ ? At _school?? Are you out of your minds?”_

“For the _last_ time, they’re not explosives. It’s just—”

“It’s for JSA!” Beth blurted out. 

“Yeah, look sorry I’m not sorry, Pat. They’re important and we need them.”

“Explain. Now.” Pat never looked so mad. Not at _Beth._ She squirmed in her seat but Rick barely looked affected, if only the least bit remorseful. She didn’t know how he could sit so still in the face of a disappointed father figure. 

_Oh._ Beth mentally cringed when she remembered why that was. _Right._

Rick glanced sideways at her. Beth let out a sigh and reached into her backpack’s front pocket to pull out the blackout bombs. They had figured out how to make them compact last week. They looked like the fancy things her mom would put in her bath when she wanted to relax. Or charcoal gumballs from a retro candy machine. 

“Rick and I came up with these so that I could throw them at ISA as a diversion when I need to run.” 

Pat took one, bringing it up to his eye. “What does it do?”

Rick and Beth went quiet.

_“Guys.”_

Beth bit her lip. “We call them blackouts. When they hit the ground they mask the area with a thick black impenetrable smoke that makes it hard to see.”

“Yeah,” Rick chimed in. “So that Beth can use Chuck’s night vision to safely get away or blind opponents she could have that upper hand.” 

“It’s not lethal? Toxic?” 

She shrugged. “Not so far as we could tell, no. We never got sick and we've been carrying samples of them for weeks.” 

His eyes bugged out. _"Weeks?!"_

Rick stifled a laugh. 

Pat stared at them, slack-jawed. “ _How_ did you come up with this?”

It was Rick's turn to shrug. “It’s just simple potassium nitrate.” He scratched his head. “And some other stuff. Beth made an Excel spreadsheet.”

“Don’t you potassium nitrate me, Rick Tyler. This is dangerous. And irresponsible. And frankly Beth, I’m shocked you went along with this for so long. At school? During _class_?”

“We’re sorry, Mr. Dugan.”

“Yeah,” he said, running his hand through his hair. “Sorry that you got caught.”

Beth’s face fell. “Are we getting suspended?” She hated the way her voice cracked. She hated the way Rick’s arm immediately went around her too. It was nice but she didn’t want him feeling bad for her because she couldn’t take a simple scolding. Ugh, she was so _sensitive._

Pat confiscated all of the bombs. “I don’t know. I hope not, because you’ve never been in trouble, Beth. I’d hate for that to change now.” He looked at Rick. “But _you_. That’s a whole other story.” 

“We didn’t _do_ anything that warrants more than detention.” 

"You're very lucky your mother and father aren't here, Beth. I don't know _what_ they'd say about this." Pat began to pace, ignoring Rick’s excuses. “And since when and why did I become your emergency contact, anyway?”

Rick pulled a face. “What do you think?”

Beth’s hand found its way to his knee. Rick’s jaw tensed, but he sucked in a breath before looking away. 

“...Right,” Pat said with a sigh. “Your uncle.”

The room went silent. 

“Okay, well I’m glad you trust me with your screw-ups. Because that’s what this is. A big screw up, you hear me? You’re not doing these kinds of reckless experiments again.”

“Yeah,” Rick replied, crossing his arms and staring up at the ceiling. “We get it.” 

“Rick, I don’t think you—”

Beth stood up from the bench of shame. “Don’t be so hard on him.” She wrung her hands, and her heart leapt out of her chest. She was really terribly bad at confrontation. Especially to adults. Super especially to nice adults she trusted and had let down. But she needed to defend Rick, he got enough to deal with already. She wasn’t about to let him lose Pat’s respect. Not because of her. 

“I knew it was a dumb idea to do in school, but he only did it because he wanted to protect me.” She refused to look back and see Rick’s face, but Pat’s own went soft. “And Rick is really good at chemistry. Don’t take this away from him, Mr. Dugan.” Her eyes began to well up with inexplicable tears. This was really dumb. Beth needed to get a grip. _“Please.”_

Two hands were suddenly on her shoulders. Rick. He squeezed, rubbing with his thumb affectionately. “Beth,” he whispered. “You don’t have to do this. It was my dumb idea. You knew that. I don’t really care for school anyway, to hell if I get suspended or Mr. Hyacinth returns to thinking I’m trash. Whatever.” 

Beth frowned. “You’re lying.” She turned around and his arms dropped to his sides. His eyebrows pulled together as he stared at her, unable to read her sincerity. “You do care. I know you do. Stop taking the blame for me on the stupid stuff we both do. If we’re going down...We’re going down together.” 

Something warm and wonderful seeped into Rick’s eyes. His hand flexed and Beth used her courage to take it again, tangling their fingers together like the first time they first started making the blackouts. _“Beth.”_

“I care about you, Rick,” she admitted, feeling her face heat up. It wasn’t like she was confessing an undying love for him or anything, of course, she cared, he had to know. “I’m in your corner. Always.” 

Rick stared at her some more, unsure what to say. Slowly, he raised their joined hands and brushed his lips over Beth’s hand. Her stomach dropped like that one unforgettable time she rode the Dive Bomber at Omaha’s Six Flags. But this time she didn’t want to throw up. At all. This rush was thrilling. Beth could feel Rick’s kiss tingle down to her toes. 

Mr. Dugan cleared his throat and the two tore their gazes away from each other, Beth slowly turning back to face him. He gave the teens a long look. 

“Fine. Here’s the deal. Experimental weapon building only happens at the garage under my constant supervision. No ifs or buts.” 

Beth stuck out her hand. “Deal!” She turned around to look at Rick. "It's a good compromise!" 

“Your garage doesn’t have any of the chemicals we need.”

“Then I’ll order some,” he retorted. “Need I remind you that the school principal is a part of the ISA?”

“Yeah.” Rick’s stubbornness on the subject seemed to have deflated in its entirety. Beth held in her smile when Pat gave her a knowing look because they both knew why. 

Principal Bowin returned, looking very annoyed. “Apparently, the school board has plans to use Beth Chapel for televised school advertisements and have no desire to hear my complaints about the matter as there’s no proof. They won’t even let me call her parents about it.”

Beth let out the biggest sigh of relief. 

“So she’s free to go.”

Mr. Dugan smiled. 

“Rick Harris, however—” 

Beth took a step forward and raised her head high. “I won’t do any commercials if Rick isn’t excused. That’s not fair. We weren’t making any bombs, Principal Bowin. The beaker exploded. We were in the lab. It _happens.”_

Mr. Dugan wrapped his arms around both kids. “They’re good kids. If Rick needs some type of community service, he can work at my garage.”

Rick looked at him. “Really?” 

“Really?” Beth echoed. 

“Yes. Starting Monday.” He ushered them out of the office while they still could. “I’m sure that would suffice, Principal Bowin?” 

“But—” 

“Need I point out that I am clearly not this man’s father? You do know who his father _is_ right, Ma’am? Matthew Harris? The man Rick had tried to file student reports about for the last several years for neglect and abuse? Reports your administration did nothing about?” 

Principal Bowin paled. “Uh.” 

He saluted, shepherding them out. 

“Thought so. Have a nice day.” 

Beth turned to Mr. Dugan as they went outside, still holding Rick’s hand. “Mr. Dugan that was _awesome!”_

“You gotta start calling me Pat, Beth.” 

“She’s not ever calling you Pat,” Rick teased with a smile of his own and squeezed her hand before he let go. Beth watched fondly as Rick tentatively, awkwardly, hugged Mr. Dugan in front of the flagpole. “But she’s right. It kinda was.” 

Her heart flipped as it always did when Rick opened up his feelings to other people. She cares for him so much. More than anyone. More than her parents. It was crazy how much. It was almost like...She thought about the way he kissed her hand, eyes piercing into hers in The Fiddler's office and felt giddy all over again like—

Time stopped. Beth's feet stopped working as she realized something important about what she felt for Rick.

_Oh._


End file.
